The Celebrity Traitors host Claudia Winkleman and the show’s executive producer Sarah Fay have opened up about the major mishap in the opening episode of season two, with Sarah admitting that she had “a little bit of sick” in her mouth following the major blunder.
Warning, major spoilers ahead!
In the opening episode of The Celebrity Traitors, the show bosses were left in shock after witnessing Richard E. Grant, who had been selected as a Traitor, gleefully confirming to the team of Faithfuls that he was indeed a Traitor, leaving the show and his fellow celebs in disarray. In the show, the aim of the game is that Traitors remain undetected throughout in order to win the prize pot.
© BBC/Studio Lambert/Cody BurridgeSpeaking about witnessing the moment during a Q&A ahead of the show, Sarah explained: “It was a mixture of a little bit of sick coming up in my mouth and [an air punch] at the same time. It was... we've never had anything like that happen before.”
© CREDIT LINE:BBC/Studio Lambert/Cody Burridge/BBC Creative“Within five minutes of being out of the round table, we've [expletive] it up. I still can't believe it now. And as producers, you always want to make sure the series is fresh and new. We've been very lucky so far. We've just come back from filming our seventh series, we've just finished civilian. Every single series, luckily, the cast brings something completely different, but never in our wildest dreams did we think that we'd have a Traitor admit they're a Traitor five minutes after the round table.”
Claudia added: “He was just so happy! He was so happy! He just couldn't believe it. Me, Sarah, and a whole brilliant gang—Neil, MJ—you go into a room after I've interviewed them all and they say, 'This is what I want to be'.
© CREDIT LINE:BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry“You just couldn't not give it to him. You couldn't not, because he wanted it so much. And he was compelling, and I mean, he's Richard E. Grant! I couldn't believe that he was actually in the castle. And yeah, he was giddy. And the minute he said it—well, actually not the minute, about five minutes later—he went [screams]! But the genius of the game is everybody plays it completely differently, and he took that to the next level.”
She added: “There's so much one can learn from it… And lots of them were like, ‘No, he's just playing a game’. Guys!”
© BBC/Studio Lambert/Cody Burridge/BBC CreativeSpeaking about how his admission changed the whole course of the game, Sarah added: “We never, ever assumed or thought in our wildest dreams that a Traitor would say that. So I think we needed to make sure that we were all on our guard in terms of the cameras, all making sure, how is he going to try and get himself out of this one?
“You've never, from the moment of being picked, seen a Traitor have to try and backpedal like that. So, absolutely. But as I said before, every series we want to bring something new, bring a new freshness to the show.”
